Accident | |
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Date | 5 March 1973 |
Summary | Mid-air collision caused by ATC error |
Site | Nantes, France 47°00′58″N 1°26′03″W / 47.0161°N 1.4343°W / 47.0161; -1.4343 |
Total fatalities | 68 |
Total survivors | 107 |
First aircraft | |
The Iberia DC-9-32 involved in the accident | |
Type | McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 |
Operator | Iberia |
IATA flight No. | IB504 |
ICAO flight No. | IBE504 |
Call sign | IBERIA 504 |
Registration | EC-BII |
Flight origin | Palma de Mallorca Airport |
Destination | London Heathrow Airport London, United Kingdom |
Occupants | 68 |
Passengers | 61 |
Crew | 7 |
Fatalities | 68 |
Survivors | 0 |
Second aircraft | |
The Spantax Convair 990 involved in the accident | |
Type | Convair 990 Coronado |
Operator | Spantax |
IATA flight No. | BX400 |
ICAO flight No. | BXS400 |
Call sign | SPANTAX 400 |
Registration | EC-BJC |
Flight origin | Madrid-Barajas Airport |
Destination | London Heathrow Airport London, United Kingdom |
Occupants | 107 |
Passengers | 99 |
Crew | 8 |
Fatalities | 0 |
Injuries | 0 |
Survivors | 107 |
The 1973 Nantes mid-air collision occurred when two airliners travelling to London Heathrow airport hit each other over Nantes, France, on 5 March 1973. They were an Iberia McDonnell Douglas DC-9 flying from Palma de Mallorca to London and a Spantax Convair 990 from Madrid to London. All 68 people on board the DC-9 were killed. The CV-990 was able to make a successful emergency landing at Cognac – Châteaubernard Air Base.
Iberia flight 504, a scheduled service from Palma de Mallorca, and Spantax flight 400, a charter flight from Madrid, were both traversing France en route to Heathrow airport in London. They were guided by French military Air Traffic Control as the country's civilian air traffic controllers were on strike. The Iberia DC-9 was due to reach the Nantes VOR point at 12:52 at flight level 290 (29,000 feet) and the Spantax Convair CV-990 was scheduled to reach it at 13:00 at the same level. Both aircraft had received instructions from Marina sector Air Traffic Control at the French Air Force base in Mont-de-Marsan, who asked them to contact Menhir sector ATC at the French Air Force base in Brest. The Spantax aircraft was on the boundary between the sectors and had difficulty hearing Marina ATC, also receiving no reply to two requests to circle to avoid arriving at the Nantes VOR before 13:00 GMT. The crew decided to start the manoeuvre without ATC authorisation and while in cloud collided with the Iberia DC-9 at 12:52 GMT. The DC-9 lost control, exploded, and broke up in mid-air before crashing to the ground.
The CV-990 managed to land at Cognac – Châteaubernard Air Base with damage to its left wing. A survivor, Betty Barrett, later recounted:
My father was sitting in the aisle seat, and I was on the right hand side. And I turned around, and he's very British and very stoic, and I said "daddy do you think we are going to make it?". He said "I rather doubt it darling" and pointed to the other wing.
All 61 passengers and 7 crew of the Iberia flight were killed, including Michael Jeffery, the former manager of The Animals and Jimi Hendrix. 47 of the dead were British citizens. No-one aboard the Spantax flight was harmed.
The accident was investigated by French air accident body, the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety. Its report identified difficulties in communication between the flight crew of the Convair CV-990 and air traffic control as well as procedural errors from both parties. The crew's unilateral decision to turn the aircraft brought it into the path of the DC-9. ATC had assumed a time-based separation of the two aircraft at the same flight level.
The event is briefly mentioned in the MSNBC/The Weather Channel documentary series Why Planes Crash, during the first season episode "Collision Course". The episode features an interview with survivor Betty Barrett who shows images of the CV-990's damaged wing after landing.
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Includes overseas departments and overseas territories * occurred in French Algeria, now an independent country |
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1973 (1973) | |
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Jan 21 Aeroflot Flight 6263Jan 22 Kano Nigeria Airways Boeing 707 crashJan 29 EgyptAir Flight 741Feb 19 Aeroflot Flight 141Feb 21 Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114Feb 24 Aeroflot Flight 630Feb 26 DeKalb–Peachtree Airport Learjet 24 crashMar 3 Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 307Mar 5 Nantes mid-air collisionApr 10 Invicta International Airlines Flight 435Apr 23 Aeroflot Flight 2420May 11 Aeroflot Flight 6551May 18 Aeroflot Flight 109May 30 SAM Colombia Flight 601May 31 Indian Airlines Flight 440Jun 3 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crashJun 10 Nepal plane hijackingJun 20 Aeroméxico Flight 229Jul 11 Varig Flight 820Jul 22 Pan Am Flight 816Jul 23 Japan Air Lines Flight 404Jul 23 Ozark Air Lines Flight 809Jul 31 Delta Air Lines Flight 723Aug 13 Aviaco Flight 118Aug 18 Aeroflot Flight A-13Aug 28 TWA Flight 742Sep 8 World Airways Flight 802Sep 11 JAT Flight 769Sep 27 Texas International Airlines Flight 655Sep 30 Aeroflot Flight 3932Oct 13 Aeroflot Flight 964Nov 2 Aeroflot Flight 19Nov 3 Pan Am Flight 160Nov 3 National Airlines Flight 27Nov 21 US Navy C-117D Sólheimasandur CrashNov 23 Italian Air Force C-47 Argo 16 crashNov 25 KLM Flight 861Dec 16 Aeroflot Flight 2022Dec 17 Iberia Flight 933Dec 17 Pan Am Fl. 110, Lufthansa Fl. 303 hijackingDec 22 Royal Air Maroc Caravelle crash | |
1972 ◄ ► 1974 |
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